by Alexa Land
Laurie nodded in agreement. “A group of us will raise more suspicion than a pair. If August and Griffin need our help, they’ll call us.” He clearly didn’t want to put his husband in danger, either.
When Ty begrudgingly agreed to wait in the car, August said, “Alright, let’s do this.”
I had to wrestle with Fig so I could get out of the SUV without him. When I finally got the door closed behind me, he looked distraught. I touched the window and told him, “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”
August was dressed in an expensive, dark suit, like usual, and he studied me for a moment before waving his hand in my general direction and reciting a quick spell. I asked, “What was that?”
“I just cleaned you up a bit. You had dirt on your face and grass in your hair. I also cast a spell, so the people in that facility will think you’re wearing a suit and tie.” When I looked down at myself, I still saw the T-shirt, jeans, and leather jacket, so I had to take his word for it.
I fell into step with him as he headed for a nearby entrance and said, “Next time, tell me about the dirt and grass sooner. I could have done something about it on my own.”
“Next time, I hope you won’t look like you’ve been wrestling hobos.”
“My car blew up, and I rolled down a hill!”
“Well, whose fault is that?”
Just inside the door, two more guards immediately went on alert when they saw us. The person at the front gate hadn’t told them anyone was coming, which apparently was against protocol. August calmed them with a few words and asked, “What’s the most convincing cover story for who we are and why we’re here?”
“You could be safety inspectors,” one of them suggested. “They come through here once a month and haven’t done their September inspection yet.”
“Perfect. Give us everything to sell that idea.” They issued two badges with the highest level of security clearance, as well as a pair of hardhats, and then they handed me a pen and a clipboard with some paperwork on it.
As we hung the badges around our necks and put on the white hardhats, one of the guards said, “I should come with you. You would have an escort.”
“Wonderful. What’s your name?”
“Lionel.”
August paused to check his reflection in a window and adjusted the tilt of his hardhat as he said, “We’re looking for an angel that might be hiding out in here, Lionel. He would have flown in from above. Has anything unusual been reported tonight?”
“About two hours ago, a colleague monitoring the security cameras thought he saw something at the north complex. He actually said it looked like a flash of huge, white wings, so we teased him about seeing a giant seagull. The camera just recorded static, but we still checked it out. Nothing was there.” No way could that be a coincidence.
August said, “Perfect. Let’s go there,” so Lionel led us back outside, and we climbed into a small, open-topped vehicle.
As the guard drove us to the other end of the compound, August leaned back in the passenger seat and crossed his legs. He was remarkably cool and collected, for someone who’d just broken into a heavily-guarded nuclear facility. Meanwhile, my heart was racing, and I had to wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans.
The power station consisted of three virtually identical clusters of buildings, each of which included an enormous domed structure that sort of looked like a silo. When we reached the farthest cluster, Lionel led us into one of the buildings. August compelled the people monitoring the security cameras to ignore anything odd they saw on their screens and to erase the footage after we left. Then we rode an elevator to the top floor. Our guide pointed out the door that would lead us to where the wings were sighted, and August told him to wait downstairs for us.
When we stepped out onto the roof, I tilted my head to look up at the massive dome, which was right beside us. It was unsettling. In fact, the whole place was. It had obviously been running without problems for years, but I just couldn’t help but think, what if something went wrong while we were here? It wasn’t the time for paranoia, though.
August and I split up and searched the huge rooftop. It was still dark out, but the roof was lit around its perimeter, so I could see pretty clearly. Eventually, I spotted a little shape cowering in a dark corner and called, “Ari? Is that you?” He launched himself out of the corner and ran to me, and I lifted him off his feet and hugged him as I murmured, “Oh, thank God.”
He wrapped his arms and legs around me as he whispered, “How did you find me?”
“I have smart friends.”
He held on to me for a long moment, but then he made himself let go and took a step back. “You have to leave,” he said. “I tricked the enforcers into following a decoy when I just couldn’t travel any farther, but they’ve figured it out and are doubling back. I can feel them, they’ll be here any minute. Please Griffin, save yourself.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.” I took off my leather jacket and draped it around Ari’s shoulders, and he stuck his arms through the sleeves. He was still barefoot and in just those pajama pants, and he felt cold to the touch.
August joined us and asked my boyfriend, “Do you have any magic left? Griffin can’t quite tap into his new powers yet, and we’re going to need all the help we can get when the wraiths catch up to us.”
“Almost none. I burned most of what I had on that decoy.” Ari turned to me and asked, “Who’s the vampire?”
“This is my good friend August,” I said, as I took Ari’s hand. “Let’s continue this conversation inside, because we’re way too exposed up here.”
The three of us turned and headed for the door. In the next instant, a huge, faceless figure landed in front of us, and we all staggered backwards as my heart stuttered. It was shaped like a man in a hooded robe, but there was absolutely nothing human about it. The wraith was at least twelve feet high, with wings that were easily double that, and it seemed to be composed of darkness, smoke, and death. I’d never seen anything so terrifying. It felt as though the figure took in all the light around it and canceled it out somehow, and it was like staring into an endless void.
Then two more landed, flanking the first. I put myself between them and Ari and squared my shoulders, even as fear made my legs shake. My voice sounded small and pathetic when I told them, “This angel is under my protection, and you can’t have him.”
If wraiths had a sense of humor, they probably would have laughed at me. Instead, the figure in the center raised a gnarled, skeletal hand, and a lightning bolt of dark energy shot toward us. I grabbed Ari and pressed my eyes shut as all three of us hit the deck.
I expected us to die instantly, but when a few seconds passed, I opened my eyes and looked around. That was when I discovered I’d instinctively raised my left hand and somehow generated a sparkling, blue dome of energy, which covered and protected us.
Ari and August both sat up and stared at me as raw power flooded my body. The moment I tapped into it, everything changed. I was so much more than I’d ever been, more than human but also firmly rooted in and drawing strength from my humanity, from the earth, from all that was in me and around me.
When I looked at my companions, I could see the magic that radiated from them. August’s was pure white, and Ari’s was a warm gold. I could even see the ephemeral lines that linked Ari to the wraiths and the rest of his kind. I plucked those delicate strings out of the air and crushed them into dust between my fingertips, then watched as they floated away.
I stood slowly and turned to face the wraiths, holding the shield between us and them. My power wasn’t limitless. I knew that. But neither was theirs. I could feel the wraiths straining as all three of them blasted us with everything they had, and I squared my shoulders and yelled, “I said this angel is under my protection, and you can’t have him! Leave now or be destroyed. The choice is yours.”
One of them flew at us, and I waved my hand in a slashing motion and tore it to pieces, which fell onto the roof. The
y looked like tar and acid, and they bubbled and steamed before evaporating into nothing.
As it turned out, doing that took a huge amount of energy, and the shield I was holding up with my other hand flickered momentarily as I dropped to one knee. I could feel the energy from the two remaining wraiths begin to seep through, and just as my newfound confidence started to waver, August stepped up and added his magic to mine, strengthening the shield.
Ari knelt beside me and said, “You can’t keep that up forever. If I fly away, they’ll chase me. Then you and your friend can escape.”
I grabbed his hand and said, “Don’t you dare!”
“Now that you severed our connection, they won’t be able to find me if I get far enough ahead of them.”
“No. I’m not going to let you use yourself as bait.”
He exclaimed, “And I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself for me!”
“Nobody’s going to be sacrificed.” I cupped his cheek and kissed him, and then I said, “Just stay right here, with me. This is where you belong.”
The wraiths were moving now. The first one circled us while the other rose into the air, and that relentless black lightning continued to flow from them like a river. It hummed and crackled, and I felt it pushing against the shield, wearing it down.
I called over the noise, “Get ready to hold up the shield, August.” Then, with another slashing motion, I tore apart the wraith who’d been hovering in midair. Again, something horrible and putrid rained onto the rooftop, and I collapsed onto my hands and knees as my energy dipped sharply.
That one actually made me dizzy, and it was several seconds before I managed to struggle to my feet with Ari’s help. “You can’t do that again,” he told me. “You won’t have any magic left.”
“It doesn’t matter. I just need you to be safe.” When I caught my breath, I straightened up and asked, “August, can you hold the shield by yourself?”
“I’ve got it, mate,” he said, “but what are you going to do? I doubt you have a third attack in you.”
“I’m going to end this.”
I stepped through the shield with one hand in front of me and took the full force of the wraith’s power. The pain was intense, but step by step, I pushed forward, even as it pushed back at me and tried to tear me apart. Long, jagged bolts of electricity began to splinter off in every direction from the stream it directed at me. When some of them bounced off the cooling tower beside us, I cringed. That momentary lapse in focus allowed the wraith to push me back several feet, but I dug my heels in and started advancing again.
Anger and determination rolled off the dark figure in waves, but I just kept moving toward it. My body was shaking by the time I stood directly before the wraith. I reached into empty air, made a fist, and jerked my hand down, and the wraith fell to its knees. Then I stared into the void where its face should be and said, “This is a warning to everyone who’s listening in on this frequency. The angel known as Ari is under my protection. Let him go. If you try to come after him, I will destroy you.”
The wraith tried to grab me, but I forced its arms back with a thought, which sent long bolts of electricity shooting across the rooftop. I took a deep breath and stuck my arms out in front of me, then flung them to my sides. An unearthly scream of pure rage left the wraith as I tore it in half. As what was left of it rained down and began to disintegrate all around me, I took two shaky steps backwards, then dropped to my knees.
A sense of calm filled me as August and Ari rushed to my side. It was so quiet all of a sudden. I blinked and looked around. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the sky was purple. My last thought before I lost consciousness was, ‘Aunt Roz would have loved that’.
Chapter Ten
I awoke in an unfamiliar bed. Double doors were open across the room, letting in a breeze that stirred the airy, white curtains and carried the scent of the ocean.
When I sat up, Fig did, too. He’d been curled up at the foot of the mattress. For the first time, I could see the magic surrounding him, and I asked my oldest friend, “Do you want me to change you back?” When he nodded, I reached out and simply pulled the spell from him, then watched as it disintegrated into a million pieces and silently drifted away.
In the bulldog’s place was a cute, naked guy with dark hair and eyes and a slight build. He blinked and murmured, “This is totally weird after twenty-four years as a dog.” He had a slight Spanish accent.
“I have one question for you. What the fuck?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time, but first let me find you some pants.”
I got up and saw I was wearing a gray T-shirt and pajama bottoms, which I didn’t recognize. There were several shopping bags in the corner, so I dug through them and pulled out a Henley and sweatpants, which I tried to hand to him.
“Dude, no,” he said, as he got up and circled the bed. “Who are you dressing, a three-year-old? Just let me do it.”
“Fine. I need to take my contacts out, because they feel like sand in my eyes. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Did you actually just tell me to stay?”
“No. You never listened to me when you were a dog, so I don’t expect you to listen now, either.” My leather jacket was hanging over the back of a chair, and as I retrieved my glasses from an inside pocket, I said, “We’re in August’s house, right?”
“Yup.”
“Where is everyone?”
“Downstairs in the garden.”
“Ari too?”
“Of course,” he said. “Where would he go?”
“I don’t know. How long was I out?”
He glanced at the clock on the nightstand and said, “Twenty-seven hours.”
“Did we cause a nuclear meltdown back in Arizona?”
“Nope. Are you just going to keep standing there asking questions with your contacts fucking up your eyes?”
“No. I’m going.” On the way to the bathroom, I noticed the ukuleles and other things I’d saved from the burning Cadillac, which were piled on a dresser. I was glad they’d made it back with us.
After I tended to my contacts and cleaned up a bit, I returned to the bedroom, where the former bulldog was frowning at his reflection in a full-length mirror. He’d put on a dark blue button-down shirt, jeans, and loafers, and he murmured, “I’m going to have to get used to wearing pants again.”
“I don’t even want to think about the fact that I just spent the last two decades with a pantsless stranger.” My body ached all over, and I was so tired that I decided to rest for a few minutes before going in search of Ari.
I dropped onto one of the club chairs near the open doors as he said, “I’m hardly a stranger.” He crossed the room and sat in the other chair. “In fact, I’ve known you since the day you were born.”
“Did one of my parents cast that spell on you?”
“Yeah, your mom. She and I both came up with that solution.”
I asked, “You wanted to be a dog?”
He shot me a look, and for the first time, I really saw his former self in his brown eyes. “What I wanted was to hide from my mate.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m one-quarter werewolf on my father’s side. Unfortunately, that was enough to trigger a mate bond with another part-werewolf. He pursued me relentlessly, and there was no fucking way I was ever going to agree to be with him, so your mom hid me in plain sight. I was supposed to revert back to human form when he finally gave up and stopped looking for me.”
“But you never did.”
He shook his head. “I guess that means he never stopped looking.”
I frowned and told him, “You look like you’re no more than twenty-six, so were you two when he started looking for you? If so, that’s gross.”
“Ew, no! The mate bond doesn’t engage until the younger of the pair turns twenty.”
“Wait, so how old are you?”
He thought about that, then said, “A hundred and se
venteen? No wait, a hundred and eighteen…or nineteen. I lost track somewhere along the line.”
“How can you possibly be that old and look like this?”
“Werewolves age very slowly. They’re not immortal, but they can easily live to be hundreds of years old. I’m only part were, but it’s enough to drastically slow my aging process.”
I thought about that for a few moments, and then I found myself asking, “Why are you named after a piece of fruit?”
“Really? That’s your question, after living with a bespelled part-werewolf most of your life?”
“I’ve always wondered that, and I have a million questions,” I said. “I can’t control the order they choose to present themselves.”
He rolled his eyes, but he answered the question. “Your mom always called me Fig, because my last name is Figueroa. She was my best friend, and it was cute when she did it, so I let it happen. Little did I know I’d be stuck with that name for over two decades. Everyone else called me Mateo.”
“Oh! Right before Ari took off, he told me to say goodbye to Mateo. I had no idea who he was talking about. That must mean he knew you when you were human, or whatever.”
“Close enough. I’m half human and a quarter warlock, in addition to the aforementioned quarter wolf. And yeah, he was close friends with your mom too, so we knew each other through her.”
I leaned back in my chair, and after a pause, I murmured, “It’s weird. I don’t remember my mother at all, but the two most important people in my life had relationships with her before I was even born.”
“I wish you could have known her. Lola was an amazing woman.”
“She went by Lola?”
He shrugged and said, “That’s just what your dad and I called her.”
“That’s the first time anyone’s mentioned my father. What was he like?”